Saturday, 26 January 2013

Read in 2013 - 4: Ludwigsburger Welt

A non-fiction book about my home town of Ludwigsburg, this was one pleasant and very interesting read for me.

The full title reads "Ludwigsburger Welt der 50er und 60er Jahre", meaning "Ludwigsburg's world of the 50s and 60s". The author, Dr. Volker Gantner, talks about his memories of Ludwigsburg from his childhood and youth during those two decades. A lot of what he mentions in the book is familiar to me from what I've been told by my parents; they are the same generation as Dr. Gantner, and that is why his book made a perfect Christmas present for my Dad from my sister.There are photos, too; I am sure both my parents looked at them and knew exactly what it was like back then!You find me talking about Ludwigsburg rather often on my blog; for instance, I showed you what my home town looks like from above here, gave you some glimpses of details that are often overlooked here and took you for a walk in the park here.All this shows, I hope, that I love my town and like living here. It is no wonder, therefore, that I enjoyed reading about Ludwigsburg's more recent history; the 1950s and 60s are not that far away, and yet, how much has changed since then!

We are now a town of almost 88.000 inhabitants (just the right size for me); not everything that has been done to modernise the place has resulted in making it a "better" or more beautiful place. But it is very much "my" town, I was born and (mostly) raised here, and I like exploring its past and making the connection with its present.Actually, this post is supposed to be a book review, and if you have been reading my blog for a while, you already know that I tend to be rather picky about mistakes, typesetting errors or the author's style. The author of this book is clearly not a professional writer (nor does he claim to be), but simply wants to give an account of what his childhood and youth were like in relation to this town. Therefore, I can forgive him the lengthy sentences with way too many commata, and the at times rather repetitive style. It was a good read, and I wouldn't have minded for the book to be a few chapters longer! If I were asked to give a ranking, I'd say four out of five stars.

10 comments:

Hello Meike:We can readily understand your interest in a book, the subject of which is your home town, and are pleased that you found it worth the read. For us, of course, the 1950s and 1960s were our growing up years and we find anything which relates to that time to be of interest.

Hello Jane and Lance,I found it indeed worth the read and just wish it was longer!Having my childhood set in the 1970s and teenage years in the 1980s (= pre-CD, pre-mobile, pre-facebook time), there is still a lot I can relate to what was going on in my town two or three decades earlier. What I can not remember, though, is a time before one of the inner city main roads was declared pedestrian area. It always looks somehow "wrong" to me when I see old pictures with cars on that particular street.

Hi Mary, I can not imagine it being published in English; the publisher is the same as the one who makes our local daily newspaper, and they are probably of the opinion that not many readers outside our area will be interested in the book.